Agrarian justice, opposed to agrarian law, and to agrarian monopoly. Being a plan for meliorating the condition of man, by creating in every nation, a national fund, to pay to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, to enable him or her to begin the world! And also, ten pounds sterling per annum during life to every person now living of the age of fifty years, and to all others when they shall arrive at the age, to enable them to live in old age without wretchedness, and to enable them to live in old age without wretchedness, and go decently out of the world / By Thomas Paine

/

AGRARIAN JUSTICE,

\ *

OPPOSED TO

AGRARIAN LAW,

AND TO

\

AGRARIAN MONOPOLY.

BEING A PLAN FOR

MELIORATING THE CONDITION OF MAN,

By Creating in every Nation,

A NATIONAL FUND,

To Pay to every Perfon, when arrived at. the Age of
Twenty-one Years, the Sum of Fifteen
Pounds Sterling, to enable HiM or her to begin
the World !

AND ALSO,

Ten Pounds Sterling per Annum during life to every
Perfon now living cf the Age of Fifty Years, ami
to all others when they fnall arrive at that Age, to
enable them to live in Old Age without Wretched -
nefs, and go decently out of the World.

By T ROMAS PA I N E,

Author of common sense, rights of man,

AGE OF REASON, &C. &C.

PHILADELPHIA:

PRINTED BY R. FOLWELL,

FO R

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN B AC HE,

/

PREFACE.

T I ^ HE following little Piece was written in
the winter of 1795 and 5 9 6 ; and, as I had not
determined whether to publifh it during the pre-
fent war , or to wait till the commencement of a
peace , it has lain by me, without alteration or
addition , from the time it was written .

What has determined me to publifh it now is, a
Sermon, preached by Watsoa r, Bifhop of Lan-
daff. Some of my readers will recoiled , that this
Bifhop wrote a bock , intit led. An Apology for
the Bible, in anfwer to my Second Part of the
Age of Reafon. I procured a copy of his book,
and he may depend upon hearing from me on that
fubjed.

At the end of the Bifhop9 s book is a lift of the
Works he has written, among which is the Ser¬
mon alluded to ; it is intitled.

IV

PREFACE,

“ The Wisdom and Goodness of God,

IN HAVING MADE BOTH RlCH AND POOR J

4

with an Appendix, containing Reflections on

THE PRESENT STATE OF ENGLAND AND

France.”

The error contained in the title of this Ser¬
mon, determined me to publifh my Agrarian Juf-
tice. It is wrong to fay that God made Rich and
Poor; de made only Male and Female; and he
gave them the earth for their inheritance.

*

be

*

b

#

*

*

*

*

*

■*

*

#

*

*

*

*

*

#

*

Inftead of preaching to encourage one part of

mankind in infolence * * *

* # # * #

4h # * #

* * * ' * it would

be better that Priefls employed their time to ren¬
der the general condition of man lefs mferable than
it is. Practical religion confejis in doing good; and
the only way of ferving God is, that of endea¬
vouring to make his creation happy. All preach¬
ing that has not this for its object, is nonfenfe and
by poor if y,

THOMAS PAINE,

/

AGRARIAN JUSTICE,

OPPOSED TO

AGRARIAN LAW,

AND TO AGRARIAN MONOPOLY.

BEING A PLAN FOR
Meliorating the Condition of Man, &c.

HP

J O preferve the benefits of what is
called civilized life, and to remedy, at the
fame time, the evil it has produced, ought
to be confidered as one of the ftrft objects of
reformed legillatiom

Whether that date that is proudly, perhaps
erroneously, called civilization, has moft pro¬
moted or moft injured the general happinefs
of man, is a queftion that may be ftrongly
contefted. — On one fide, the fpe&ator is daz¬
zled by fplend id appearances; on the other,
he is lhocked by extremes of wretchcdnefs ,

( 6 )

both of which he has ere&ed. The mod af¬
fluent and the mod miferable of the human
race are to be found in the countries that are
called civilized.

To underfland what the date of fociety
ought to be, it is neceflfary to have fome idea
of the natural and primitive date of man ; fuch
as it is at this day among the Indians of North
America. There is not, in that date, any of
thofe fpedaeles of human mifery which po¬
verty and want prefent to our eyes, in all the
towns and dreets of Europe. Poverty, there¬
fore, is a thing created by that which is called
civilized life. It exids not in the natural date.
On the other hand, the natural date is with¬
out thofe advantages which flow fromAgricul-
ture, Arts, Science, and Manufactures.

The life of an Indian is a continual holiday,
compared with the poor of Europe ; and, on
the other hand, it appears to be abjed when
compared to the rich. Civilization, therefore,
or that which is fo called, has operated, two
ways, to make one part of fociety more afflu¬
ent, and the other part more wretched, than
would have been the lot of either in a natural
date.

It is always poffible to go from the natural to
the civilized date, but it is never poffible togo
from the civilized to the natural date. Tlte

( 7 )

reafon is, that man, in a natural date, fubfifting
by hunting, requires ten times the quantity of
land to range over, to procure himfelf hide-
nance, than would fupport him in a civilized
date, where the earth is cultivated. When
therefore a country becomes populous by the
additional aids of cultivation, arts, and fcience,
there is a neceflity of preferring things in that
date; becaufe without it, there cannot be fuf-
tenance for more, perhaps, than a tenth part
of its inhabitants. The thing therefore now to
be done, is, to remedy the evils, and prel'erve
the benefits, that have arifen to fociety, by
pafiing from the natural to that which is called
the civilized date.

Taking then the matter up on this ground,
the fird principle of civilization ought to have
been, and ought did to be, that the condition
of every perfon born into the world, after a
date of civilization commences, ought not to
be worfe than if he had been born before that
period. But the fa£t is, that the condition of
millions, in every country in Europe, is far
worfe than if they had been born before ci¬
vilization began, or had been born among the
Indians of North America of the prefent day.
Twill fhew how thi6 fa£t has happened.

It is a pofition not to be controverted, that
the earth, in its natural uncultivated date, was,
and ever would have continued to be, the
COMMON PROPERTY OF THE HUMAN RACE.

.( 8 )

In that date every man would have been borft
to property. He would have been a joint life-
proprietor with the reft in the property of the
foil, and in all its natural productions, vege¬
table and animal.

But the earth, in its natural ftate, as before
laid, is capable of fupporting but a fmall num¬
ber of inhabitants compared with what it is
capable of doing in a cultivated ftate. And as
it is impoftible to feparate the improvement
made by cultivation, from the earth itfelf, up¬
on which that improvement is made, the idea
i of landed property arofe from that infeparable
conne&ion; but it is neverthelefs. true, that it
is the value of the improvement only, and not
the earth itfelf, that is individual property. Eve¬
ry proprietor therefore of cultivated land, owes
to the community a ground-rent ; for I know
no better term to exprefs the idea by, for the
land which he holds : and it is from this ground
rent that the fund propofed in this plan is to
iffue.

It is deducible, as wrell from the nature of
the thing, as from all the hiftories tranfmitted
to us, that the idea of landed property com¬
menced with cultivation, and that there was
no fuch thing as landed property before that
time. It could not exift in the firft ftate of
man, that of hunters. It did not exift in the
fecond ftate, that of Ihepherds : Neither Abra*
ham,Ifaac, Jacob, nor Job, fo far as thehiftory

( 9 )

of the Bible may be credited in probable
things, were owners of land. Their property
confifled, as is always enumerated, in flocks
and herds, and they travelled with them from
place to place. The frequent contentions, at
that time, about the ufe of a well in the dry
country of Arabia, where thofe people lived,
fhew alfo there was no landed property. It was
not admitted that land could be located as
property.

There could be no fuch thing as landed
property originally. Man did not make the
earth, and, though he had a natural right to
occupy it, he had no right to locate as his pro¬
perty in perpetuity any part of it : neither did
the Creator of the earth open a land-office,
from whence the firfl title-deeds flhould iflfue*

c

From whence then alTv the idea of landed
property ? I anfwer as before, that when cul¬
tivation began, the idea of landed property be¬
gan with it, from the impoffibility of feparating
the improvement made by cultivation from
the earth itfelf, upon which that improvement
was made. The value of the improvement fo
far exceeded the value of the natural earth,
at that time, as to abforb it ; till, in the end,
the common right of all became confounded
into the cultivated right of the individual.
But they are, neverthelefs, diflinft fpecies of
rights, and will continue to be fo as long as
the earth endures.

B

( 1° )

It is only by tracing things to their origin
that we can gain rightful ideas of them, and it
is by gaining fuch ideas that we difcover the
boundary that divides right from wrong, and
which teaches every man to know his own. I
have intitled this tract Agrarian Juftice , to
diftinguifh it from Agrarian Law. Nothing
could be more unjuft than Agrarian Law in a
country improved by cultivation ; for though
every man, as an inhabitant of the earth, is a
joint proprietor of it in its natural ftate, it
does not follow that he is a joint proprietor
of cultivated earth. The additional value made
by cultivation, after the fyftem was admitted,
became the property of thofe who did it, or
who inherited it from them, or who purchafed
it. It had originally an owner. Whilft, there¬
fore, I advocate the right, and intereft myfelf
in the hard cafe of jdl thofe who have been
thrown out of their natural inheritance by the
introduction of the fyftem of landed property,
I equally defend the right of the pofteflor to
the part which is his.

Cultivation is, at leaft, one offhe greateft
natural improvements ever made by human
invention. It has given to created earth a ten¬
fold value. But the landed monopoly, that be¬
gan with it, has produced the greateft evil. It
has difpoflefled more than half the inhabitants
of every nation of their natural inheritance,
without providing for them, as ought to have
been done, as an indemnification for that lofs.

( II )

and has thereby created a fpecies of poverty
and wrechednefs that did not exifl before.

In advocating the cafe of the perfons thus
difpolfelfed, it is a right and not a charity that
I am pleading for. But it is that kind of right,
which, being neglected at firft, could not be
brought forward afterwards, till heaven had
opened the way by a revolution in the fyftem
of government. Let us then do honour to re¬
volutions by juftice, and give currency to their
principles by bleffings.

Having thus, in a few words, opened the
merits of the cafe, I proceed to the plan 1 have
to propofe, which is,

To create a National Fund , out of which there
Jhall be paid to every perfon , when arrived at
the age of twenty-one years , the fum of Fifteen
Pounds fterling, as a compenfation in part , for
the lofs of his or her Jiatural inheritance , by the
introduction of the fyftem of landed property,

AND ALSO,

The fum of Ten Pounds per annum, during
life , to every perfon now living , of the age of fifty
years , and to all others as they Jhall. arrive at
that age .

( 12 )

MEANS BY WHICH THE FUND IS TO BE CREATED.

I have already eftabliflhed the principle,
namely, that the earth, in its natural unculti¬
vated ftate, was, and ever would have conti¬
nued to be, the common property of the
human race — that in that ftate, every per*
fon would have been born to property- — and
that the fyftem of landed property, by its in-
feparable connexion with cultivation, and
with what is called civilized life, has obfor-
bed the property of all thofe whom it difpof-
fefled, without providing, as ought to have
been done, an indemnification for that lofs.

The fault, however, is not in the prefent
poftefibrs. No complaint is intended, or ought
to be alleged againft them, unlefs they adopt
the crime by oppofing juftice. The fault is in
the fyftem, and it has ftolen imperceptibly up¬
on the world, aided afterwards by the Agra¬
rian law of the fword. But the fault can be
made to reform itfelf by fucceflive generations,
without diminifhing or deranging the proper¬
ty of any of the prefent pofleftors, and yet the
operation of the fund can commence, and be
in full activity, the firft year of its eftabliih*
ment, or foon after, as I fhall fhew.

It is propofed that the payments, as already
ftated, be made to every perfon, rich or poor.
It is beft to make it fo, to prevent invidious
diftindions. It is alfo right it Ihould be fo, be-
£auf$ it is m lieu qf the natural inheritance^

i

( i3 )

which, as a right, belongs to every man, over
and above the property he may have created
or inherited from thofe who did. Such per-
fons as do not choofe to receive it, can throw
it into the common fund.

t

Taking it then for granted, that no perfon
ought to be in a worfe condition when born
under what is called a date of civilization, than
he would have been, had he been born in a
{late of nature, and that civilization ought to
have made, and ought dill to make, provifion
for that purpofe, it can only be done by fub-
trading from property, a portion equal in va¬
lue to the natural inheritance it has abfor-
bed.

Various methods may be propofed for this
purpofe, but that which appears to be the befl,
not only becaufe it will operate without de¬
ranging any prefent poifeifors, or without in¬
terfering with the colledion of taxes, or em-
prunts neceffary for the purpofe of govern¬
ment and the revolution, but becaufe it will
be the lead troublefome and the mod effec¬
tual, and alfo becaufe the fubtradion will be
made at a time that bed admits it, which is,
at the moment that property is paffmg by the
death of one perfon to the poffedion of ano¬
ther. In this cafe, thebequether gives nothing;
\he receiver pays nothing. The only matter to
him is, that the monopoly of natural inheri¬
tance, to which there never was a right, be-

( H )

gins to ceafe in his perfon. A generous man
would not wifh it to continue, and a juft man
will rejoice to fee it abolifhed.

My ftate of health prevents my making fuf-
ficient enquiries with refped to the dodrine
of probabilities, whereon to found calcula¬
tions with fuch degrees of certainty as they are
capable of. What, therefore, I offer on this
head is more the refult of obfervation and re-
fledion, than of received information; but I
believe it will be found to agree fufficiently
enough with fad.

In the firfl place, taking twenty-one years
as the epoch of maturity, all the property of
a nation, real and perfonal, is always in the
poffeffion of perfons above that age. It is then
neceffary to know as a datum of calculation,
the average of years which perfons above that
age will live. I take this average to be about
thirty years, for though many perfons will
live forty, fifty, or fixty years after the age
of twenty-one years, others will die much foon-
er, and feme in every year of that time.

Taking then thirty years as the average of
time, it will give, without any material vari¬
ation, one way or other, the average of time
in which the whole property or capital of a
nation, or a fum equal thereto, will have pair¬
ed through one entire revolution in defeent,
that is, will have gone by deaths to new pof-

I

( l5 )

feffors; for though, in many inflances, fome
parts of this capital will remain forty, fifty, or
fixty years in the pofTeffion of one perfon, other
parts will have revolved two or three times be¬
fore that thirty years expire, which will bring
it to that average; for were one half the ca¬
pital of a nation to revolve twice in thirty
years, it would produce the fame fund as if
the whole revolved once.

Taking, then, thirty years as the average of
time in which the whole capital of a nation,
or a fum equal thereto, will revolve once, the
thirtieth part thereof will be the fum that
will revolve every year, that is, will go by
deaths to new p ode (Tors; and this laid fum be¬
ing thus known, and the ratio per cent, to be
fubtraded from it being determined, will give
the annual amount or income of the propofed
fund, to be applied as already mentioned.

In looking over the difeourfe of the Englifh
minifler, Pitt, in his opening of what is called
in England, the budget, (the fcheme of fi¬
nance for the year 1796,) I find an eflimate
of the national capital of that country. As this
eflimate of a national capital is prepared rea¬
dy to my hand, I take it as a datum to ad up¬
on. When a calculation is made upon the
known capital of any nation, combined with
its population, it will ferve as a fcale for any
other nation, in proportion as its capital and
population be more or lefs. I am the more dif?

( *6 )

pofed to take this eftimate of Mr. Pitt, for the
purpofe of (hewing to that minifter, upon his
own calculation, how much better money may
be employed, than in wafting it, as he has
done, on the wild project of fetting up Bour¬
bon kings. What, in the name of Heaven,
are Bourbon kings to the people of England I
It is better that the people have bread.

Mr. Pitt dates the national capital of Eng¬
land, real and perfonal, to be one thoufand
three hundred millions fterling, which is about
one-fourth part of the national capital of
France, including Belgia. The event of the
laft harveft in each country proves that the
foil of France is more productive than that of
England, and that it can better fupport twen¬
ty-four or twenty-five millions of inhabitants
than that of England can feven, or feven and
an half.

The3othpartof thiscapital of /1,300,000,00a

is ;C’43’333>333» which *s thf Part that will
revolve every year by deaths in that country

to new poffefiors*, and the fum that will an¬
nually revolve in France in the proportion of
four to one, will be about one hundred and
feventy-three millions fterling. From this fum
of ;C-43>333>333 annually revolving, is to be
fubtraCted the value of the natural inheritance
abforbed in it, which perhaps, in fair juftice,,
cannot be taken at lefs, and ought not to bo
taken for more, than a tenth part.

C i; )

If w!I1 always happen, that of the property
thus revolving by deaths every year, part will
defcend in a dired line to fons and daugh¬
ters, and the other part collaterally, and the
proportion will be found to be about three
to one ; that is, about thirty millions of the
above fum will defcend to direft heirs, and
the remaining fum of £-13.333,333 10 more
diitant relations, and part to ftrangers.

Confidering then that man is always related
to fociety, that relationlhip will become com¬
paratively greater in proportion as the next
of km is more diftant : It is therefore con¬
fident with civilization to fay, that where there
are no direft heirs, fociety (hall be heir to a
part over and above the tenth part due to fo¬
ciety. If this additional part be from five to
ten or twelve per cent, in proportion as the
next of kin be nearer or more remote, fo as
to average with the efcheats that may fall
which ought always to go to fociety and not
to the government, an addition of ten per
cent, more, the produce from the annual fum
ot £-43>333>333 will be,

From 30,000,000 at ten per cent. . 3,000.000

rrom i3>333>333 at ten pr. ct. with the

addition of ten per 2 ,666,666
- - - cent, more ....

£-43>333>333 . £-5,666,666

»

( *8 )

Having thus arrived at the annual amount
of the propofed fund, I come, in the next
place, to fpeak of the population proportioned
to this fund, and to compare it with ufes to
which the fund is to be applied.

The population (I mean that of England)
does not exceed feven millions and a half, and
the number of perfons above the age of fifty
will in that cafe be about four hundred thou-
fand. There would not however be more
than that number that would accept the pro¬
pofed ten pounds fterling per annum, though
they would be entitled to it. I have no idea
it would be accepted by many perfons who had
a yearly income of two or three hundred
pounds fterling. But as we often fee inftan-
ces of rich people falling into fudden pover¬
ty, even at the age of fixty, they would al¬
ways have the right of drawing all the arrears
due to them. — Four millions, therefore, of
the above annual fum of £.5,666,666, will be
required for four hundred thoufand aged per¬
fons, at ten pounds fterling each.

I come now to fpeak of the perfons annu¬
ally arriving at twenty-one years of age. If
all the perfons who died were above the age
of twenty-one years, the number of perfons
annually arriving at that age, muft be equal
to the annual number of deaths to keep the
population ftationary. But the greater part
die under the age of twenty-one, and there-

( *9 )

fore the number of perfons annually arriving
at twenty- one, will be lefs than half the nura-
of deaths. The whole number of deaths up¬
on a population of feven millions and a half,
will be about 220,000 annually. The number
arriving at twenty-one years of age will be
about 100,000. The whole number of thefe
will not receive the propofed fifteen pounds, for
the reafons already mentioned, though, as in
the former cafe, they would be entitled to it.
Admitting then that a tenth part declined re¬
ceiving it, the amount would (land thus :

Fund annually . £.5,666,666

To 400.000 aged per- 1

fons at £. 1 o each £.'4,000,000 C
To 90,000 perfons of (

21 years, 15Z.fter.ea. 1,350,000 j

- - 5>3505°©°

remains £.316,666

There are in every country a number of blind
and lame perfons, totally incapable of earning
a livelihood. But as it will always happen that
the greater number of blind perfons will be
among thofe who are above the age of fifty
years, they will be provided for in that clafs.
The remaining fum of £.316,666, will pro¬
vide for the lame and blind under that age, at
the fame rate of £.10 annually for each per-
fon.

C 20 )

Having now gone through all the neceffary
calculations, and Hated the particulars of the
plan, I fhall conclude with fome obfervations.

It is not charity but a right — not bounty
but juftice, that I am pleading for. The pre-
fent Hate of what is called civilization, is
* # * It is the reverfe of what it ought

to be, and ***** The contrail
of affluence and wretchednefs continually meet¬
ing and offending the eye, is like dead and liv¬
ing bodies chained together. Though I care
as little about riches as any man, I am a friend
to riches becaufe they are capable of good.

I care not how affluent fome may be, provided
that none be miferable in confequence of it.
But it is impoffible to enjoy affluence with the
felicity it is capable of being enjoyed, whilll
fo much mifery is mingled in the fcene. The
fight of the mifery, and the unpleafant fenfa-
tions it fuggells, which, though they may be
fuffocated, cannot be extinguished, are a great¬
er draw-back upon the felicity of affluence than
the propofed io per cent, upon property is
worth. He that would not give the one to get
rid of the other, has no charity, even for him-
felf.

There are, in every country, fome magnifi¬
cent charities eftablifhed by individuals. It is,
however, but little that any individual can do,
when the whole extent of the mifery to be relieved
]be confidered. He may fatisfy his confidence,

( 21 )

but not his heart. He may give all that he has,
and that all will relieve but little. It is only
by organizing civilization upon fuch principles
as to act like a fyftem of pullies, that the whole
weight of mifery can be removed.

The plan here propofed will reach the
whole. It will immediately relieve and take
out of view three clalfes of wretchednefs. The
blind, the lame, and the aged poor ; and it
will furnifh the rifmg generation with means
to prevent their becoming poor ; and it will
do this, without deranging or interfering with
any national meafures. To Ihew that this will
be the cafe, it is fufficient to obferve, that the
operation and effect of the plan will, in all
cafes, be the fame, as if every individual were
voluntarily to make his will, and difpofe of his
property, in the manner here propofed.

But it is jullice and not charity, that is the
principle of the plan. In all great cafes it is ne-
ceffary to have a principle more univerfally ac¬
tive than charity ; and with refpefl to jullice,
it ought not to be left to the choice of detach¬
ed individuals, whether they will do jullice or
not. Confidering then the plan on the ground
of jullice, it ought to be the adt of the whole,
growing fpontaneoufly out of the principles of
the revolution, and the reputation of it to be
national and not individual.

A plan upon this principle would benefit

C 22 )

the revolution, by the energy that fprings from
the confcioufnefs of juftice. It would multi¬
ply alfo the national refources ; for property,
like vegetation, encreafes by off-fets. When a
young couple begin the world, the difference
is exceedingly great, whether they begin with
nothingorwith fifteen pounds a-piece. With this
aid they could buy a cow, and implements to
cultivate a few acres of land ; and inftead of
becoming burthens upon fociety, which is al¬
ways the cafe, where children are produced faf-
ter than they can be fed, would be put in the
way of becoming ufeful and profitable citizens.
The national domains alfo would fell the bet¬
ter, if pecuniary aids were provided to culti¬
vate them in fmall lots.

It is the praTice of what has unjuffly ob¬
tained the name of civilization (and the prac¬
tice merits not to be called either charity or
policy) to make fome provifion for perfons be¬
coming poor and wretched, only at the time
they become fo. — Would it not, even as a
matter of economy, be far better, to devife
means to prevent their becoming poor. This
can bed be done, by making every perfon,
when arrived at the age of twenty. one years,
an inheritor of fomething to begin with. The
rugged face of fociety, chequered with the ex¬
tremes of affluence and of want, proves that
fome extraordinary violence has been commit¬
ted upon it, and calls on juftice for redrefs.
The great mafs of the poor, in all countries.

( 23 )

are become an hereditary race, and it is next
to impoffible for them to get out of that flate
ofthemfelves. It ought alfo to be obferved,that
this mafs increafes in all countries that are cal¬
led civilized. More perfons fall annually into
it, than get out of it.

Though in a plan, in which juflice and hu¬
manity are the foundation-principles, interefl
ousrht not to be admitted into the calculation,
yet it is always of advantage to the eflablifh-
ment of any plan, to fhew that it is beneficial
as a matter of interefl. The fuccefs of any pro-
pofed plan, fubmitted to public confideration,
muff finally depend on the numbers interefled
in fupporting it, united with the juflice of its
principles.

The plan here propofed will benefit all,
without injuring any. It will confolidate the
interefl of the republic with that of the indi¬
vidual. To the numerous clafs difpoiTefTed of
their natural inheritance by the fyflem of lan¬
ded property, it will be an act of national juf-
tice. To perfons dying poffeffed of moderate
fortunes, it will operate as a tontine to their
children, more beneficial than the fuin of
money paid into the fund : and it will give
to the accumulation of riches a degree of fe-
curity, that none of the old governments of
Europe, now tottering on their foundations,
can give.

( 24 )

I do not fuppofe that more than one family
in ten, in any of the countries of Europe, has,
when the head of the family dies, a clear pro¬
perty left of five hundred pounds fterling. To
all fuch, the plan is advantageous. That pro¬
perty would pay fifty pounds into the fund,
and if there were only two children under age,
they would receive fifteen pounds each (thirty
pounds) on coming of age, and be entitled to
ten pounds a year after fifty. It is from the
over grown acquifition of property that the
fund will fupport itfelf ; and I know that the
poffeffors of fuch property in England, though
they would eventually be benefited by the
protection of nine-tenths of it, will exclaim
againft the plan. But, without entering into
any enquiry how they came by that property,
let them recoiled that they have been the ad¬
vocates of this war, and that Mr. Pitt has al¬
ready laid on more new taxes to be raifed an¬
nually upon the people of England, and that
for fupporting the defpotifm of Auftria and
the Bourbons, againft the liberties of France,
than would annually pay all the fums propo-
fed in this plan.

I have made the calculations, ftated in this
plan, upon what is called perfonal, as well as
upon landed property. The reafon for mak¬
ing it upon land is already explained ; and the
reafon for taking perfonal property into the cal¬
culation, is equally well founded, though on
a different principle. Land, as before faid, is

( 25 )

the free gift of the Creator in common to the
human race. Perfonal property is the effed of
Society ; and it is as impoffible for an indivi¬
dual to acquire perfonal property without the
aid of Society, as it is for him to make land
originally. Separate an individual from focie*
ty, and give him an ifland or a continent to
poffefs, and he cannot acquire perfonal pro¬
perty. He cannot become rich. So infepara-
bly are the means connected with the end, in
all cafes, that where the former do not exift,
the latter cannot be obtained. All accumula¬
tion, therefore, of perfonal property, beyond
what a man’s own hands produce, is derived to
him by living in fociety ; and he owes, on every
principle of juffice, of gratitude, and of civile
zation, a part of that accumulation back again
to fociety from whence the whole came. This is
putting the matter on a general principle, and
perhaps it is beff to do fo ; for if we examine
the cafe minutely, it will be found, that the ac¬
cumulation of perf nal property is, in many
initances, the effect of paying too little for the
labour that produced it ; the confequenceof
which is, that the working hand perifhes in old
age, and the employer abounds in affluence^
It is, perhaps, impoflible to proportion exa&ly
the price of labour to the profits it produces $
and it will alfo be faid, as an apology for in*
juffice, that wTere a workman to receive an in-
creafe of wages daily, he would not fave it
againff old age, nor be much the better for it
in the interium. Make, then, fociety the trea-

D

/

( 26 )

furer, to guard it for him in a common fund ;
for it is no reafon, that becaufe he might not
make a good ufe of it for himfelf, that another
lhall take it.

The (late of civilization that has prevailed
throughout Europe, is as unjult in its prin¬
ciple, as it is horrid in its effe&S; and it is
the confcioufnefs of this, and the apprehen-
fion that fuch a Hate cannot continue, when
once inveftigation begins in any country, that
makes the polfelTors of property dread every
idea of a revolution* It is the hazard and not
the principles of a revolution that retards their
progrefs. This being the cafe, it is neceflary
as well for the protection of property, as for
the fake of juflice and humanity, to form a fyf-
tem, that whilft it preferves one part of fociety
from wretchednefs, fhali fecure the other from
depredation.

The fuperflitious awe, the enflaving reve¬
rence, that formerly furrounded affluence, is
palling away in all countries, and leaving the
pofleffor of property to the convullion of ac¬
cidents. When wealth and fplendour, inllead
of fafcinating the multitude, excite emotions
of difgull ; when, inllead of drawing forth ad¬
miration, it is beheld as an infult upon wretch¬
ednefs ; when the ollentatious appearance it
makes, ferves to call the right of it in ques¬
tion, the cafe of property becomes critical, and

t

( 27 )

it is only in a fyflem of juftice that the pof-
feffor can contemplate fecurity.

o; r; . . .(

To remove the danger, it is neceffary to re¬
move the antipathies, and this can only be done
by making property produ&ive of a national
blefiing, extending to every individual. When
the riches of one man above another fhall in-
creafe the national fund in the fame propor¬
tion ; when it fhall be feen that the profperity
of that fund depends on the profperity of in¬
dividuals ; when the more riches a man ac¬
quires, the better it fhall be for the general
mafs ; it is then that antipathies will ceafe, and
property be placed on the permanent bafis of
national interefl and protection.

I have no property in France to become fub-
jeCl to the plan I propofe. What I have, which
is not much, is in the United States of Ameri¬
ca. But I will pay one hundred pounds fler-
ling towards this fund in France, the inflan t it
fhall be eftablifhed ; and I will pay the fame
fum in England, whenever a fimilar eflabliih-
ment fhall take place in that country.

A revolution in the flate of civilization, is
the neceffary companion of revolutions in the
fyflem of government. If a revolution in any
country be from bad to good, or from good
to bad, the flate of what is called civilization
in that country, muff be made conformable
thereto, to give that revolution effeCls. Def-

( 28 )

potic government fupports itfelf by abjeCl ci¬
vilization, in which debafement of the human
mind, and wretchednefs in the mafs of the
people, are the chief criterians. Such govern¬
ments confider man merely as an animal ; that
the exercife of intellectual faculty is not his
privilege; that he has nothing to do with the laws ,
but to obey them;* and they politically depend
more upon breaking the fpirit of the people
by poverty, than they fear enraging it by def-
peration.

It is a revolution in the flate of civilization,
that will give perfection to the revolution of
France. Already the conviction, that govern¬
ment, by reprefentation , is the true fyflem of
government, is fpreading itfelf fa ft in the world.
The reafonablenefs of it can be feen by all.
The juflnefs of it makes itfelf felt even by its
oppofers. But when a fyflem of civilization,
growing out of that fyflem of government,
fha 1 be fo organized, that not a man or wo¬
man born in the republic, but fhall inherit
feme means of beginning the world, and fee
before them the certainty of efcaping the mb
feri-s that under other governments accompa-
ir old age, the revolution of France Wll have
an advocate and an ally in the heart of all na*
tious.

* Fxpvefiion of Horfley, an Englifli Bifhop, in the
parliament.

( 29 )

\

An army of principles will penetrate where
an army of foldiers cannot — It will fucceed
where diplomatic management would fail —
It is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor
the Ocean, that can arreil its progrefs- — It will
march on the horizon of the world, and it
will conquer.

,

THOMAS PAINE,

C 3® )

Means for carrying the propofedPlan into
Execution, and to render it at the fame time
conducive to the public Intereft.

I.

Each canton Jhall eleft in its primary ajfem-
blies , three perfons, as commiffioners for that can¬
ton , who Jhall take cognizance , and keep a re-
gifter of all matters happening in that canton ,
conformable to the charter that Jhall be ejlablijhed
by law , for carrying this plan into execution .

II.

The law Jhall Jix the manner in which the
property of deceafed perfons Jhall be afcertained .

III.

When the amount of the property of any de¬
ceafed perfon Jhall be afcertained , the principal
heir to that property , or the eldejl of the co-heirs ,
if of lawful age , or if under age , the perfon
authorized by the will of the deceafed to reprefent
him , or them , Jhall give bond to the commijfion-
ers of the cant on , to pay the faid tenth part
thereof within the [pace of one year , in four
equal quarterly payments , or fooner , at the choice
of the payers . One -half of the whole property
Jhall remain as fecurity until the bond be paid off.

( 3i )

IV.

The bond (hall be registered in the office of the
commiffioner s of the canton , and the original
bonds Jhall be dopofited in the national bank at
Paris . The bank Jhall publijh every quarter of
a year the amount of the bonds in its poffeffion, and
alfo the bonds that Jhall have been paid off, or
what parts thereof, fince the lajl quarterly pub -
lication .

V.

The national bank Jhall iffue bank notes upon
the fecurity of the bonds in its poffeffion. The
notes fo iffued, Jhall be applied to pay the penfions
of aged perfons, and the compenfations to perfons
arriving at twenty-one years of age . — It is both
reafonable and generous to fuppofe , that perfons
not under immediate neceffity, will fufpend their
right of drawing on the fund, until it acquire,
as it will do, a greater degree of ability . In this
cafe, it is propofed , that an honorary regifler be
kept in each canton, of the names of the perfons
thus fufpending that right , at leajl during the
prefent war.

VI.

As the inheritors of property mujl always take
up their bonds in four quarterly payments , orfoon -
er if they choofe , there will always be numeraire
arriving at the bank after the expiration of the
jirft quarter, to exchange for the bank notes that
Jhall be brought in.

/

( 32 )

VII.

The bank notes being thus got into circulation ?
upon the bejl of all pojfible fecurity , that of adtual
property , to more than four times the amount of the
bonds upon which the notes are iffued , and with
numeraire continually arriving at the bank to ex¬
change or pay them off whenever they Jhall be
prefented for that purpofe , they will acquire a
permanent value in all parts of the republic .
They can therefore be received in payment of taxes
or emprunts , equal to numeraire , becaufe the go¬
vernment can always receive numeraire for them
at the bank .

yin.

It will be neceffary that the payments of the ten
per cent, be made in numeraire for the firjl
year i from the effablijhment of the plan . But af¬
ter the expiration of the jirji year , the inheritors
of property may pay the ten per cent, cither in
bank notes iffued upon the fund , or in numeraire .
If the payments be in numeraire , it will lie as a
depofit at the bank , to be exchanged for a quan¬
tity of notes equal to that amount ; and if in notes
iffued upon the fund , if will caufe a demand upon
the fund equal thereto ; and thus the operation
of the plan will create means to carry itfelf into>
execution .

FINIS.